A few weeks ago, I spoke to Craig Silverman who is conducting a a research project with the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University that focuses on how unverified information and rumor are reported in the media. We had a discussion of how I pick and write stories for Doubtful News, a site that casts a critical eye on some rather outrageous media stories on anomalies, the paranormal, alternative treatments and other kinds of questionable claims.

Craig knows what he’s talking about when it comes to media misinformation. Just like me, he’s trying to figure out how to present good information and dispel the bad stuff as well and as fast as possible.

I had not heard of Craig's website Emergent.info. It’s now bookmarked and on my everyday read list. If you are interested in seeing if the latest news or political rumor is true, unverified or confirmed false, check this site out. It is a rumor aggregator that attempts to confirm or debunk the claim emerging on social media before it gets to the major news outlets. The front page is a straightforward list of rumors with their current "state" of validity - True, False, Unverified - along with the number of social shares showing how it's moving. A link for each shows the sources reporting the rumor (Critical for getting to the primary source!), and visualization of how the story is being shared on social media. Readers also can volunteer new information to back up or tear down the claim.

We are all familiar with the Urban Legend database snopes.com - it’s our go-to place to look up all those wacky Facebook posts and emails we get from our friends and family asking us to avoid some product or gawk at some person’s misfortune. Emergent is different. For one, it’s faster. Early this week, a rumor that artist Bansky was arrested ran amok on twitter. One stop at Emergent showed it was false - the source was a fake news site. (Beware of unreliable or fake news sites.)

Check out Emergent when you hear the rumors and make sure you cite updated information on social media to help stem the wave of misinformation on the net. It’s a daunting task, believe me, I know. But if no one says anything, the wave of misinformation travels even farther.

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SWIFTis named after Jonathan Swift, the author of Gulliver's Travels. In the book, Gulliver encounters among other things a floating island inhabited by spaced-out scientists and philosophers who hardly deal with reality. Swift was among the first to launch well-designed critiques against the flummery - political, philosophical, and scientific - of his time, a tradition that we hope to maintain at The James Randi Foundation.